Craft of the day.

I don't know about you, but I have been feeling very crafty these days. I think it's the weather and all of the Christmas decor coloring the world. And when I get all these ideas in my head, I get all excited and anxious. I can't do anything else unless I do the crafts in my head. This one happens to be a wreath. I chose icy colors like blue and purple, but really any color can work. Red would be great or a more earthy green perhaps. Anyways, what you need for this project:

1. wooden wreath/ twig wreathe

2. baby's breathe faux flowers (any color may work)

3. Decorative accents

4. ribbon

5. glue gun

I don't think you can get more simple than that. I used about 4 branches or baby breathe flowers, this can also be altered to more or less. To begin, cut the flowers from the stem. I chose flowers that had a similar stem color to the wood to allow blending. You then begin attaching the flowers all going in a specific direction. To attach you would weave the access stems through the wooden wreath. To secure the stems, apply glue to the stem and surrounding wood.

When completed, you can apply the decorative accents to the wreathe. I used Faux berries, red and brown, to accent mine. You can use anything from flowers to holly. Once that is complete, You can tie your ribbon onto the wreathe. and VOILA, you have a wreathe to hang on your door.

Needles and Frozen Windows

Today is December 1st. November is gone (what a great month, we will miss you dearly). And December wanted Lafayette to announce his arrival with snow. How sweet of him. So today, I wanted to thank December for the many great things he does for me. Thank you December, for giving me a reason to wear my mix-matched mittens. Thank you for inspiring holiday music, which I believe should only be played when there is snow outside. Thank you for making hot chocolate ten times more valuable in my life. December, even though Curt seems to dislike you (along with lots and lots of other people) mostly because you are paired with freezing temperatures and shortened days, I think you bring a wonderful element to the year.

ALSO. I have never ever gotten a real tree for Christmas. Crazy, I know. But my family has always chosen the easier, cost efficient way -- by using a fake tree. I don't mind this at all, don't get me wrong. We would always find the correct color branches and fluff them out together as a family. Good times. But I always wanted to experience picking a real live tree. And so we did. Curt and I went on an adventure to Ace Hardware store. Here we found trees of all sizes. Big trees, teeny trees, fat trees, perfect trees. Of course, we picked the perfect tree, which is fluffy and about 6 ft tall. I love it. We stuck it in the back of my Accord and hauled it away. It now sits in our living room, tall and beautiful. All it needs are some lights and ornaments. We will get to that another time.

Now we can say Halloween is partially complete.

 I am not sure if you knew this, but there has been a FIRE BAN in IN. super lame. Because of this, we had to cancel our much anticipated camping trip. even more lame. But our fall break weekend still turned out well. Our plan B was to carve pumpkins! Yes, it's only the first week of October, but we thought it would be appropriate. The festivities included apples (yum), with caramel dip (yummm), more caramel candies, chocolate milk (apparently the official drink of Halloween-says the label), pumpkins, pumpkin seeds, Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack (wonderful), and good people (below).


Curt and I happened to browse the internet for ideas of what to carve exactly. Brooke and Phil had not. They definitely didn't know where to begin. This was their list of ideas:

• dead cat
• bat carrying a dead cat
• a catbat
• monster of some sort
• something terrifying

The list continued. for quite some time. But it was extremely humorous. Finally they decided upon something grand. 

 Curt, being the manly man he is, was in charge of the cutting and dissecting of our lovely pumpkin. He is very good, let me tell you. He cut with such precision and detail. Amazing.

 After the final product.


It was very abstract. And definitely took a minute to see, because of their amazing craftsmanship and talent of course.

CatBat

 Beware of the Bat carrying the DEAD CAT. It's mind bobbling! Terrifying.

Jack Skellington

And this, we reveal to you as our creation!




JACK SKELLINGTON.

Not so terrifying, but definitely cute and halloweeny.

 Now our home looks very festive.

hallway decor

 We have new friends.

playing with our pumpkin friends.

Jefferey.

AND my sister and I made Jefferey, our newest friend. We love him dearly. We thought long and hard about Jefferey. We knew he would be sweet and slightly nerdy. We also didn't have any white, so we used fabric for his teeth, and buttons for his braces! It was so fun.



Words of Wisdom:

With my experiences with Jack and Jefferey-I have come to the conclusion that painting pumpkins are so much easier than carving. No offense Jack.

The crazy things you can do with Pumpkin.

 

 

Pumpkin Pancakes

Serves 4
Prepare 1 cup dry pancake mix according to the package directions.
Whisk in 1/3 cup canned pumpkin puree.

 

Pumpkin Milk Shake

Makes 1 milk shake
Blend until smooth 1 cup vanilla ice cream, 1/4 cup milk, 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree, 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg.

 

Pumpkin Whipped Cream

Makes 2 cups
Beat together 1 cup heavy cream, 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, and 1 tablespoon canned pumpkin puree until soft peaks form.

 Pumpkin Chili

Ingredients:

4 cups water
1 (15-ounce) can canned crushed tomatoes
1 (15-ounce) kidney beans, drained
1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup uncooked bulgur
1 cup chopped Serrano chili pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan, stir well to combine, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to medium-low and simmer, covered, 35 minutes. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Fudge

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
½ cup pureed cooked pumpkin
½ cup evaporated milk
¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
¼ cup butter
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
¼ teaspoon cornstarch

Directions:

1. Combine sugar, pumpkin, milk, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water, or until reaches 236°F. Remove from heat

2. Add the nuts, butter, and vanilla; beat until mixture is creamy.

3. Pour into a buttered plate and allow to cool. Cut into small chunks and serve.